American Pedophile Converts to Islam, Joins ISIS

An American man has been charged with trying to provide support for the Islamic State militant group, the U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday.

Joshua Ray Van Haften, 34, of Madison, Wisconsin, intended to travel to Iraq or Syria to join the group, also known by the acronyms ISIL and ISIS, prosecutors said in a statement.

He added: “I was about to cross to Syria … but I didn’t make it. Hopefully soon though. … I’m tired of this life man.”

Haften was a perfect recruit for ISIS and Islam.

According to online records, Van Haften was convicted of the 2nd Degree sexual assault of a child in 2000 in Rock County, Wisconsin. The incident happened in May 2000. He was sentenced to seven years in prison in the case. The victim was a female.

The Beloit Daily News reported in 1998 that Van Haften was arrested in Beloit, Wisconsin, (above) when he was 17 after pointing a gun at a man who was dating the suspect’s ex-girlfriend. According to the paper, Van Haften hit the man in the ear with the firearm, disfiguring him. He was charged with substantial battery in the case.

The complaint against Van Haften states that in July 2014, he traveled to Egypt where he got into an argument with a woman because the suspect had been taking pictures of a military facility. She reported him to local police. The cops there went to the U.S. Embassy to reports Van Haften, upon learning of his status as a sex offender, he was deported back to Wisconsin. He had been in North Africa from October 2012-January 2014.

On August 29, 2014, a woman in Madison, Wisconsin, went to police to complain that Van Haften had harassed her 11-year-old son at the capitol building in the city. She says the suspect talked to her son about World War III and going to Syria to fight. When cops eventually went to interview Van Haften about the incident, his former roommate said the he had left the country “because [Van Haften] didn’t like living in the United States.” A friend of Van Haften’s told investigators that he heard from the suspect sporadically via text message including one from Turkey that read “I figured I would meet people b/c of my sheer knowledge about things & it’d be all good, brothers would help me, give me money, facilitate in getting me to Iraq to help take over Baghdad.”